平治物語の平重盛へ

Under the broad wings
of the fame-soaked butterfly,
when did you, young man,
learn the confidence to speak,
to contradict a father?

*

He keeps no promise,
if evil is done thereby,
forswears even gods--
but his father's foolish vows
guards to his own destruction.

*

The tall, light red roan
and the burnt orange laces:
they are only yours,
but the butterfly roundels
are much more yours, and much less.

Tanka (for Tametomo)

A thousand ages
may have come and gone by now,
yet see on my skin
the name of those who died out
rewritten in bold colors.

To Astraea

I don't understand
how the universe doesn't
grind to a dead halt
under the measureless weight
of its suffering.
Could there be a counterweight?
And it is just inertia?

Tanka

Today's sky is flat;
the clouds lie close, uncurving.
I stare and wonder:
Is it flat for all who see,
or is it only my eyes?

Tanka

I open my eyes
and see the creatures in me,
all of us trapped here.
Surely this body is mine,
and surely it is not mine.

Tanka

On the gravel road,
I thought if I went barefoot,
my feet would callous.
I felt them grow uglier
but stay still tender and bleed.

Still

I am a beacon,
writing my rage on the sky,
and I am a still,
freezing in the mountain sunshine,
converting fury to tears.

Tanka

Black ink, white paper
begging me for my words:
but I have nothing,
overcome by the beauty
of black ink on white paper.

Reading Cities' Names

Reading cities' names,
I just got punched in the gut.
All of these people,
all of these streets and houses:
I don't know any of them.

Tanka

Now I realize
I couldn't say I love you
because I didn't.
Now that I know what love is,
I have the freedom to lie.

By now I know what this is about.

Go on being hurt.
I need you to keep breaking,
again and again,
so I can keep fixing you
(so I can keep fixing me).

Tanka

Why would you teach me
that it's wrong to tell a lie
and also teach me
that it's wrong to tell the truth?
All that means is I can't speak.

Hyun Ki Joon

I did not believe
Fate had eyes that looked at me.
But now I believe:
I fell in love with someone
we all know I shouldn't have.

Freedom

Down at the bottom,
you break yourself when you hit.
When you breathe again,
you find out you've stopped falling,
and you cry with gratefulness.

Tanka

Reading love stories
makes me see that I'm lonely.
I can't stop reading,
driving that fact in and out,
an oil well, one of thousands.

Tanka

Little paper doll,
I want to teach you to breathe,
want to unfold you--
but then you won't be a doll.
What I want, no one can give.

To T. R.

I haven't spoken
to the girl with waist-length hair
for weeks now, I think.
But I see her every day,
whenever Reason chides me.

Tanka

I want to be free
but the sky's not big enough
to hold all of me.
I keep growing and growing
until I fill the whole world.

Tanka

Like the one-winged bird,
I cannot fly by myself,
and so I cry out
for my mate, for my other half--
yet I am tied to a stone.

Tanka

I can never say
how very sorry I am
enough to cleanse me,
enough to turn my true self
into what it ought to be.